Lancashire Commissioner joins North West colleagues in calling on the Government to reverse police cuts

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Lancashire Commissioner joins North West colleagues in calling on the Government to reverse police cuts

23 June, 2017

This week, myself and other North West colleagues called on the Government to reverse years of policing austerity in Wednesday’s Queen Speech

I joined the Mayor of Greater Manchester and Police Crime Commissioners for Merseyside and Cheshire in writing to the Home Secretary to ensure that the public’s concerns about police cuts are top of the Government’s agenda.

Citing recent attacks and the erosion of neighbourhood policing that provides vital community intelligence, we said:

“As Home Secretary you have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that police forces across the country are properly resourced so they can keep people safe and tackle crime. We are asking that you ensure that this is a priority for the Government by making a clear commitment to reverse austerity in policing in this year’s Queen’s Speech.”

I hear from people and officers across Lancashire about their concerns about the resources available to the police to do their job and keep communities safe.

The Government need to listen to these concerns and commit to reversing austerity in policing – not doing so as part of the Queen’s Speech is a missed opportunity.

Despite promises from Ministers around ‘protecting’ budgets Lancashire receives less money every year from the Government to deliver a policing service. My message to the Home Secretary is that this needs to change and we need to start re-investing in policing, not cutting our budgets further.

In Lancashire savings of £72 million have had to be found since 2010 with more than £19 million additional savings estimated to be needed by 2020. This has meant a reduction of 800 officers and more than 400 police staff.